The National University of San Marcos (Spanish: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, UNMSM) is a public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. In the Americas, it is the first officially established (privilege by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) and the oldest continuously operating university.
The university started in the general studies that were offered in the convent of the Rosario of the order of Santo Domingo—the current Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo—on July 1, 1548. Its official foundation was conceived by Fray Thomas de San Martín on May 12, 1551; with the decree of Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1571, it acquired the degree of pontifical granted by Pope Pius V, with which it ended up being named the "Royal and Pontifical University of the City of the Kings of Lima". It is also referred to as the "University of Lima" throughout the Viceroyalty.
The University of San Marcos has passed through several locations, of which it maintains and stands out: the "Casona de San Marcos", one of the buildings in the Historic Center of Lima that were recognized as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1988. The University of San Marcos has 66 professional schools, grouped into 20 faculties, and these in turn in 5 academic areas. Through its "Domingo Angulo" historical archive, the university preserves documents and writings. In 2019, the "Colonial Fund and Foundational Documents of the National University of San Marcos: 1551–1852" was incorporated into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
It holds a ten-year institutional licensing granted by the National Superintendency of Higher Education (SUNEDU) and an international institutional accreditation. To date, twenty-one Presidents of the Republic of Peru, seven Peruvian candidates for the Nobel Prizes in Physics, Literature, and Peace, and the only Peruvian Nobel Prize laureate have been alumni or professors of this institution.
During the General Studies carried out in the cloisters of the Convent of the Rosario of the Order of Santo Domingo—current Basilica and Convento de Santo Domingo—on July 1, 1548, the Cabildo of Lima would send Fray Tomás de San Martín and Captain Juan Jerónimo de Aliaga to Spain, who obtained the founding order of the university from Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire and Queen Juana I of Castile. The foundation of the Royal University of the City of Kings was officially carried out. The university began to function officially on January 2, 1553.
They asked the Royal Court for compliance with the Royal decree of 1570. The university moved to its second location, near the outskirts of San Marcelo, where the Convent of the Order of Saint Augustine had previously operated. The "Royal and Pontifical University of San Marcos" was chosen as its official name on September 6, 1574, with Mark the Evangelist as the patron saint of the University. In 1575, the university changed its location again to the old Plaza del Estanque.
The officially named University of San Marcos began its work in the viceregal era with the faculties of Theology and Arts, later the canons of Law and Medicine would be created. On November 27, 1579, the professors asked King Philip II for the institution of jurisdiction that governed the University of Salamanca. In 1581, Viceroy Francisco Álvarez de Toledo authorized clerics and laymen to be elected.
The support for the secularization of the University of San Marcos was given by Viceroy Francisco Álvarez de Toledo. It was also exercised by the rector of the Royal Convictory of San Carlos. Between 1792 and 1811, the amphitheater and medicine chairs began to develop in the Royal Hospital of San Andrés. Both the University of San Marcos and the College of Law and Letters of San Carlos and the College of Medicine of San Fernando began to be watched by the Viceroy because their house professors and students were suspected of envisioning.
The University of San Marcos became part of the current Republic of Peru since its independence in 1821. The First Constituent Congress of Peru was initially chaired by the former rector of the University of San Marcos, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza; of the 64 constituent deputies, 54 were San Marcos's alumnus and Carolines's. In 1822, the university handed over its collection of 50,000 books to form the National Library of Peru. In 1840, the Colleges of San Carlos and San Fernando are taken over by the University of San Marcos. San Marcos was empowered by the then President Ramón Castilla to approve new universities and control the newly created ones.
During the 1870s, the university moved to the Casona of San Marcos. During the War of the Pacific and specifically during the occupation of Lima by Chilean troops, art and cultural objects and assets were taken from the university in order to be taken to Chile by sea. At the end of the 19th century, the San Fernando Faculty of Medicine, which was located in a building in the old Plaza de Santa Ana, moved to its current location in the Orchard of Mestas. Once the war ended, by law of 1901, it is stated that Peruvian university education corresponds to the National University of San Marcos and the minor universities of Trujillo, Cusco, and Arequipa, which were later joined by the Catholic University of Lima and technical schools.
At the beginning of the 20th century, university activists promoted a reform within the University of San Marcos. In 1909, the students had participated in protests against the Peruvian dictatorial governments. In 1916, the Federation of Students of Peru (FEP) was established, led mainly by students from San Marcos. The FEP's demands included university reforms such as updating curricula, removing untrained faculty, and eliminating Peruvian government interference in the university. The university educational system was later reorganized and university autonomy was granted.
In 1946, the university's name was made official as the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. In 1951, as a commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the University of San Marcos, the university acquires a new piece of land to build the new University City, where the Stadium of the University of San Marcos was inaugurated that same year. A ceremony was also held that brought together the rectors of the main Ibero-American universities, who decided to give her the title of "Dean of America". Due to this, the university has retained the names of the University of Peru and the Dean of the Americas.
In 1958, then Vice President Richard Nixon had scheduled a conference at the University of San Marcos as part of his visit to Latin America; however, this did not take place due to the protest of San Marcos, who spoke out against US policy in the region with phrases such as "Nixon, Go Home!". The conference was transferred to the Catholic University of Lima.
In the mid-1960s, several faculties of the university began to move to the Ciudad Universitaria site, where 17 of the 20 faculties are currently located. On September 22, 1984, the current statute of the university was promulgated. It had nearly 40,000 students and more than 4,000 faculty. In 2010, a Nobel Prize was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa, a student of the University of San Marcos. As a tribute, on March 30, 2011, the university distinguished Vargas Llosa with its highest decoration: the San Marcos Medal of Honor in the degree of Grand Cross. The ceremony was held in the Casona de San Marcos. In 2019, the university awards a doctoral degree based on a thesis written and defended entirely in Quechua.
Since its foundation until 1574, the first official shield showed an image of the Virgen del Rosario, considered the patron saint of the Dominican friars; on the right, a representation of the Pacific Ocean; and below a lime—fruit, referring to the city of Lima. The coat of arms was approved by King Charles I of Spain in 1551. By the end of 1570, after the papal bull of Pius V, the coat of arms was modified, replacing the image of the Virgen del Rosario with that of the new patron of the university, the apostle Saint Mark and the Lion.